How Much Feed and Forage You Need for Livestock

forage heading

Introduction

In Utah, livestock are usually grazed from May through October and fed hay from November through April. By stockpiling pasture grasses (leaving a part of the pasture ungrazed from mid August to mid October), the grazing season can often be extended into December.
Grazing is measured in Animal Unit Months (AUM). One AUM is the amount of forage consumed by a 1000-pound animal in one month.

How much hay and forage your animals need: 

  Hay (Tons/Month) Grazing (Animal Units/Month)
1 Horse .5 1.25
1 Cow .4 1.2
I Sheep .1 .2
1 Llama .15 .3
1 Goat .1 .2

The average forage production of pasture in one year:

  Fertile Soils
Hay (tons/acre)       Forage (AUMs/acre)
Poor Soil
Hay (tons/acre)         Forage (AUMs/acre)
Irrigated                              4-6               6-10                        2-4                      3-6
Non-irrigated                              1-2                1-2                          .5                       .5

Forage and hay requirments to get your maxium production potential:
The following examples operation consits of three acres of fertile irrigated land. One acre is used for hay production and two acres to grazing. Livestock consits of two horses. The pasture has a six month growing season.

Hay Requirement
2 Horses x .5 tons/month x 6 months = 6 tons hay
Forage Requirement
2 horses x 1.25 AUMs/month x 6months = 15 AUMs
Hay Production
1 acre (fertile irriagted soil) x 5 ton/acre = 5 tons hay
Forage Production
10 acres (fertile non-irrigated soil) x 1 AUM/acre = 10 AUMs

In this example, two acres would produce enough forage to feed two horses for 6 months. However, there would not be enough forage (grazing) to meet your animals’ needs during the winter. Some hay would need to be purchased. To avoid overgrazing your pasture, you can do some of the following:
- Buy additional feed or rent pasture
- Increase pastue production
- Imporve grazing management
- Reduce number of animals

How many head of livestock per acre:

 

Fertile Soils

Grazing

Poor Soils

Grazing

Livestock Species

Irrigated

Non-irrigated

Irrigated

Non-Irrigated

Number of cattle

5 to 8

Possibly only 1

2 to 3

None/feed hay

Number of sheep

30 to 50

5 to 10

10 to 20

Possibly only 2

Number of goats

30 to 50

5 to 10

10 to 20

Possibly only 2

Number of llamas

20 to 33

3 to 6

10 to 20

Possibly only 1

Number of horses

4 to 8

Possibly only 1

2 to 3

None/feed hay

Number of pigs

About 12

About 6

About 6

None/confined feeding only

Source

For more information on forage needs, visit Small Pasture Management Guide 

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